Thankful Thursday: Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!

Two years ago, the cutest, most precious baby entered out lives.

The first few months were filled with heartache and uncertainty.  Even after having three kids, we were in unknown territory.  Two days after she was born, we found out she would need open heart surgery.  It was confirmed that she has Down syndrome.  

But, it doesn't matter.  She is ours and we love her unconditionally.

Yesterday we celebrated.

Two years of giggles, smiles, stubbornness and squishy hugs.  While we're still waiting for her to decide to stand and walk, she has found her own way of getting around (Please turn off the sound, there was a political discussion going on in the background ;) ).

When trying to figure out what kind of cake to make for her, I came across this idea: 

Ice Cream Cone Cakes

The instructions looked easy enough.  But...

Oops.

But to be fair, they didn't all turn out like that =)  And the kids had fun decorating the *fails.*

See.  I just had to make sure I didn't fill them too full and there were no cracks in the cones =)

Today I'm thankful for squishy baby hugs and the chance to be Sweet Pea's mama.  

What are you thankful for today?

Restore My Soul

"He restores my soul.  He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake." Psalm 23:3

Every so often you need to take time to restore your soul.  To refresh your spirit.  This last weekend I had a chance to do that.  Four days of being semi- unplugged and wide open mountain views...

My crew being silly.

My girls.

Saturday was my birthday and the kids let Grandma help them make me cupcakes.  They were delicious!

And I even managed to finish up another cross stitch project.  Only 5 or 6 more to go ;)

An Eventful Day

Saturday we had planned on having a small party for Girly- girl to celebrate her birthday with her friends.  And of course, it was a princess party...

When did they stop making pinatas that you had to break open?  Pulling a string just isn't as much fun for the kids.

All the candy.  I'm sure the parents appreciated my filling their kids full of sugar ;)

And she made out like a bandit once again.

The cutest Cinderella...

And cake (cupcakes) and ice cream.  Then we kicked them all outside to play in the pool and run through the sprinkler.

Hmm...  what's that in the background?  

Oh, just a wildfire to make things more interesting.  At one point, we could see the flames above the treeline.

The field to the north of us and the field to the east were on fire.  The fire line came within about 600 yrds of our neighborhood.  The neighborhood to the north of us had at least 3 houses damaged by the fires.  

Later that day, we got to see an airshow.  

We just missed getting a picture of this one dropping the fire retardant chemicals on the field.  At this point, we're pretty sure it was just insurance that the fires wouldn't start up again.

And this is how you watch the field across from your house burn.

We are very thankful that the fires didn't come any closer.  And although we appreciated the airshow, I really don't want to see another one like it that close again =)

A Princess Turns 5

The biggest piece with the most frosting.

He needed a fork and a spoon to get it all in his mouth.

Her favorite gift =)  We've watched it at least 10x now.

We even had a clown, er, Papa making balloon animals for the kids =)

Goggles are always better worn in the house, not in the pool.